Bob Murray Comments on the Few Ducks Trade Deadline Moves

Awhile back we kind of challenged this group and they responded. Since way back on January 1, I don’t know who has been better in this league than our team. They have earned the opportunity, deserved the opportunity and wanted the opportunity to continue. We just stayed out of the way. Going in, we tried to look at a couple that might even help. You look back at late December, we were thinking about selling. You come to today and because of how well they have played here, you’re almost thinking ‘Well maybe we can get in on something here.’ They made it real difficult here in the last couple of weeks. Good for them. I have no problem with that.

On the price tags on trades around the league
They started out high back with the Philly acquiring of Grossman, and they just stayed that way. You hoped they might come down today. We’ve been studying it here and they didn’t come down. I don’t think a lot happened really. We are all so bunched up. We dabbled in a couple of things and the price tag was too high for us.

On Selanne
I never let him get to that. I told him it wasn’t going to happen. He was going to have to come to me and make me do something. We never even talked after that. It would have taken a real lot for him to tell me that he wanted out of here and for me to listen. No, there was never a discussion on that point.
On the moves at this trade deadline
It was a pretty interesting deal, that last one by the way (involving Vancouver and Boston). When you get to the draft, I think Philadelphia proved it last year, all of a sudden you have more people trying to make a major move because they have had playoff failures or they haven’t made the playoffs. In a move right now, you can only talk to certain teams because of the cap and money. No, it didn’t surprise me. I think it may have held up things a little bit, but that happens every year. It opens up much more at the draft.
On the minor league deals
Erixon will go to Syracuse. He’s a bit banged up right now. It hasn’t gone well in the minors this year. We’re very disappointed in what has happened down there. We tried to shake a few things up and will continue in the offseason.

On offers that came his way
As always goes on these trade deadlines, months ago, teams start lining up what is going to happen and what you are going to do. A long time ago, you thought we’d be sellers here and the players responded to the challenge. We weren’t going to sell. As the weeks went on and we got closer to it, the talks weren’t really talks anymore. We pulled ourselves right back from everything. These players deserve this opportunity and they are getting this opportunity.